Ingress AMA Archive
Any clarifications regarding portal/wayspot criteria is outdated.
Please refer to the official Wayfarer criteria for all current criteria

July 17th 2017

Q1: How soon can we expect OPR medals to start rolling out?
A1: They should be awarded within the next week or so.
Q2: How many outstanding portal submissions are left (or how far through are we)?
A2: I've been told the backlog should be cleared within the next couple of months if everything continues at the same pace.
Q3: The higher OPR medal levels look unrealistic. Any plans to review them?
A3: Not at this time. They were thoroughly analyzed using all the data points we have at our disposal to set metrics so that it would take about a year on average for most people to obtain Onyx. Fun fact: There is already at least one person with enough agreements to obtain Onyx and several very close behind.
Q4: What's the ETA for August anomalies rules?
A4: The goal is this week. However, the best laid schemes o' mice an' men...
Q5: What's the current status of the second chance programme you annonced recently?
A5: It is currently in legal review to make sure I don't do something wrong or put anyone in a position that would be less than ideal.
Q6: How is your day, and can I send you a Becherovka as a thank you for the work and the progress in Ingress ?
A6: I don't know what Becherovka but because it has so many vowels in the name I'm sure it is delicious - so sure, send some.
Q7: Why do birds suddenly appear?
A7: Just like me, they long to be, close to you...
Q8: What is Niantics stance on (non-profit) fanfiction / swag / Biocards using the Ingress name and/or symbols? Is it OK if explicitly labeled as unofficial?
A8: Any merchandise using the names or logos needs to be licensed. The license may be for free, meaning no payment required, but it still has to be licensed. I'm happy to connect anyone to the folks who handle the licensing for us.
Q9: Should we expect that the OPR will be available to players level 8?
A9: I wouldn't expect this any time soon.
Q10: How can OPR saved locations get fixed?
A10: File a request via the help center and we'll take care of it.
Q11: Will portal submissions open again?
A11: Yes.
Q12: There are currently a lot of bad title/description edits (especially in local non-english/latin languages) that we can't revert unless we g+ them and that takes a lot of time and effort. Will OPR start reviewing title/description edits?
A12: I believe the next several phases of OPR will involve being able to edit portals title and descriptions. When? I do not know. EDIT: I read this wrong. Edits submitted will at some point will be reviewed in OPR. Not sure about editing any submissions directly.
Q13: Does OPR make a distinction between 2, 3, 4 and 5 stars when deciding if an analysis will count towards the badge? If it doesn't (and I suspect it doesn't), there's no reason to submit any number of stars but 1 or 5. Users are incentivized to only submit extreme ratings: if they don't, it lowers their chance of matching the final result.
A13: I would not recommend only submitting extreme ratings.
Q14: Are agentprofiles erased after a specific time of inactivity?
A14: I believe in the TOS is states after one year. I could be wrong about that though.
Q15: Are there any plans to highlight unique portals on scanner or intel?
A15: I hope that we can implement something similar to what Pokémon GO does to highlight portals that have not been visited before.
Q16: I would love to know if the (preferably near) future has any new challenges or special priviliges in store for lvl 16 players other than grinding for almost impossible black medals?
A16: I think once we determine that Ingress 2.0 is stable and the current functionality in Ingress 1.0 works in Ingress 2.0 we'll start to add new features and challenges. We have to be careful not to upset the game mechanics, economy, or player experience. So simply adding L16 bursters for example may not be a good idea. We have to study these things and their impact. But we understand the need for veteran players.
Q17: Can you confirm that votes from both factions are needed to accept/reject a portal on OPR?
A17: The review system has a lot of inputs and some are dynamically weighted. I'd avoid trying to rig the system because it will be obvious and abuse will likely result in loss of access or your actions will simply carry no weight.
Q18: What can you say about Ukrainian agents?
A18: They make some of the best field art.
Q19: If you didn't have to worry about money, a job or portals, where would you live in the world ? And why ?
A19: Great question... I would spend my Winters in Hawaii. My summers in Germany. My Fall in Australia and Spring would be wherever the dart landed on a map.
Q20: Name 3 current employees (not contractors) from Niantic that are active Resisitance.
A20: I could easily name more than three. In fact, I had three names written down when I first started to answer this question. But I'm not going to name them because I understand the secondary context of this question. That is, the perception that there are no RES at Niantic. The truth is, I think I know more RES employees than ENL employees. Naming them would put an unfair spotlight on my colleagues. Unfair because I could very easily see them getting swamped with incoming messages and it isn't their job to interface and interact with the player community. So I can't in good conscious name. It's pretty close to 50/50 in the office though.
Q21: July 13 ... Three locations were chosen (1 Moscow, 2 Kursk, 3 Nikolaev - 1 and 2 in Russia, 3 in Ukraine). From July 13 on the OPR site - I have not received any requests for consideration of the portal at all (0-0-0 my statistics in OPR)...- is there any way that will change this sad situation?
A21: There is a fix for this coming.
Q22: How many points did you get at operation clear field?
A22: 67 points
Q23: made, fresh ground, pre-ground, K-cups, Sanka? What roast? Cream? Sugar? Flavoring? Bacon chaser?
A23: I never pigeon hole myself into just one thing. It really varies on my mood, available time, and location. There are awesome local roasters near my house. But I don't always have the time to go out so in that case I default to what I have on hand which maybe fresh ground or K-cups. Drip coffee I like to drink black. But my go to is a Flat White (no added sugar or anything).